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New York Times
16-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
New Jersey Transit Engineers Strike, Idling Trains and Upending Commutes
The first statewide transit strike in New Jersey in more than 40 years left a fleet of passenger trains parked in rail yards and thousands of commuters stranded, annoyed and bewildered Friday morning. The strike followed months of negotiations between New Jersey Transit, the nation's third-largest commuter rail network, and the union that represents train drivers, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen. Union members began picketing at stations on Friday after contract talks broke down late Thursday night. State officials said they hoped to resume negotiations with the union over the weekend so that the strike would end before Monday. Gov. Philip D. Murphy apologized to commuters whose trips had been disrupted and blamed union leaders for refusing to accept an offer that he said was fair to their members and fiscally responsible for the state. 'It is frankly a mess of their own making and it is a slap in the face of every commuter and worker who relies on NJ Transit,' Mr. Murphy, a Democrat, said at a news conference in Aberdeen, N.J. Thomas Haas, the union's general chairman, said his negotiating team had been optimistic about reaching an agreement until late Thursday. 'They decided to walk away,' Mr. Haas said. 'It's definitely frustrating, but we're willing to go back to the table.' Some commuters did not learn about the shutdown until they arrived at their local train stations early Friday. Leslie Bell, 34, was stuck at the station in Trenton, trying to get to his job as supervisor at a Wawa store in Newark. He had bought NJ Transit tickets in advance and his only option for getting to work on time for his 8 a.m. shift was an Amtrak train that would cost $110. 'I can't pay $110 to get to Newark on Amtrak, plus all the tickets are sold out,' Mr. Bell said. 'This is ridiculous.' NJ Transit's contingency plan called for providing chartered buses from four spots in the state as substitutes for the idle trains. But the buses could only accommodate about one-fifth of the displaced train riders, and they were not scheduled to start running until Monday. On a typical weekday, about 70,000 commuters ride NJ Transit trains into New York City. But Kris Kolluri, the agency's chief executive, said the shutdown of the train lines would affect all 350,000 NJ Transit riders, including those who take buses and light rail. Mr. Kolluri, who has been leading management's bargaining team, said on Friday that he believed the two sides were 95 percent of the way to a deal. The last major sticking point has been a union demand that NJ Transit engineers be paid on par with their counterparts at the other passenger railroads that serve New York City, Amtrak, the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad. Mr. Haas said his members earned $10 an hour less than engineers at the other railroads. NJ Transit's offer, the union said, amounted to annual increases of about 2.7 percent over 7.5 years, compared with average annual raises of 4.87 percent it recently negotiated with Amtrak. Mr. Kolluri said NJ Transit had offered the engineers a contract that would have brought their starting hourly wage to nearly $50, close to what the L.I.R.R. pays. He said a tentative contract that union members overwhelmingly rejected last month would have raised their average annual pay to $172,000 from $135,000. Union officials disputed those figures, saying that the engineers' annual base pay was only $89,000 and that most earned less than $100,000 a year. Mr. Kolluri, who called the striking engineers his 'colleagues,' said he expected talks to resume on Sunday, if not sooner. While Mr. Kolluri and Mr. Murphy spoke to reporters in Aberdeen, a half-dozen striking engineers stood across the street holding signs. They said they loved their jobs and wanted to get back to work as soon as a deal could be reached. 'I feel bad for the people we move every day, the worker bees and the sports fans,' said Michael Delatore, 37, who drove a Coast Line train on its last run to Long Branch Thursday night. He said he was anxious and 'stressed' about being on strike and was willing to return to work 'immediately.' By taking the drastic action of walking out, the engineers probably gained the upper hand in the bargaining, at least temporarily, Bill Dwyer, an associate teaching professor at the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, said in an interview on Friday. 'If there's a power imbalance, I think it goes in favor of the union at this point,' he said. Shutting down the railroad 'gives the union additional leverage because the ridership is not going to be happy,' Professor Dwyer said. The transit agency's customers, he added, are 'going to be very impatient' about having their service restored. Still, he said, that advantage may be short-lived if New Jersey Transit retaliates by cutting off payments for the engineers' health insurance. Striking workers would start to feel the financial pinch of not getting paid after a couple of weeks, he said. Having to cover their own health-care costs could compound that discomfort quickly. 'They are escalating the situation,' Professor Dwyer said, referring to the union, 'and the bigger guns might start coming out.' Matt Stratton, 47, a banker from Glen Ridge, N.J., who takes a train into Manhattan regularly, said he dreaded what would happen if the strike continued into next week. 'I have no idea how I'm getting to work on Monday,' he said while standing on a platform at Pennsylvania Station in Newark. 'I'm actively looking into figuring out what to do.' Mr. Stratton expressed no sympathy for either side in the dispute. 'We just had a fare increase, and reliability is terrible,' he said. 'I was delayed every day last week. It's hard to be sympathetic just based on the poor service.'
New York Times
16-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Live Updates: Governor Apologizes as NJ Transit Strike Leaves Commuters Searching for Rides
Pinned The first statewide transit strike in New Jersey in more than 40 years began just after midnight Friday when about 450 unionized locomotive engineers walked off their jobs in a pay dispute, shutting down New Jersey Transit's rail network. Some commuters showed up at NJ Transit rail stations on Friday morning unaware of the shutdown, while others rushed to find different modes of transportation into New York City and beyond for work. Tens of thousands of commuters ride the trains on a typical workday. They rushed to take ferries, NJ Transit buses and charter bus services. Amtrak was an option for passengers in some areas of New Jersey, but at a steep cost. Some commuters in Trenton said they could not afford a one-way ticket of up to $118 into the New York City metropolitan region, about six times the cost of a NJ Transit rail ticket. (Later in the morning, some Amtrak fares posted online were lower.) Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey apologized on Friday morning to commuters whose trips had been disrupted and said that NJ Transit was eager to reach deal with the union, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen. 'It is a slap in the face of every commuter and worker who relies on NJ Transit,' Mr. Murphy said at a news conference. Union members began picketing early Friday. Tom Haas, the union's general chairman, said on Friday that the group had been optimistic about a possible settlement until late Thursday night. 'They decided to walk away,' he said. 'It's definitely frustrating, but we're willing to go back to the table.' Here's what we're covering: Working from home: NJ Transit urged rail commuters whose presence at their workplaces was not essential to work from home during the strike. Some big employers in New York, including Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, gave workers temporary permission to work remotely or said they would consider providing flexibility. Bus service: NJ Transit's statewide bus system continued to operate as scheduled. The agency hired private buses to substitute for its train service, but they will start running on Monday, and Kris Kolluri, the chief executive of NJ Transit, said that the chartered buses could accommodate only about 20 percent of the displaced train riders. There is no supplemental bus service on Friday. Using your tickets: Commuters who already have NJ Transit rail tickets and passes to or from New York, Newark or Hoboken may use those tickets on NJ Transit's existing bus routes and light rail lines. But they will not be cross-honored on other carriers, including Amtrak, PATH, ferries and private carrier buses. Pay dispute: The union says its members want parity in wages with their counterparts who work for the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad. Mr. Kolluri said an offer the union voted down in March would have raised the average annual pay of full-time engineers to $172,000 from $135,000. But Mr. Haas said those figures were inflated. Picket lines: The union planned to have picket lines at Penn Station in New York, at NJ Transit's headquarters in Newark and at the train station in Atlantic City. Sports and concerts: NJ Transit also carries fans to concerts and sporting events at the Prudential Center in Newark and MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. Before the midnight deadline, the agency had already canceled service to MetLife for Shakira's concerts on Thursday and Friday nights. Here are alternate ways to get to and from MetLife. Show more
Irish Examiner
28-04-2025
- General
- Irish Examiner
National push to protect rivers and secure nitrates derogation
A Teagasc team has been set the challenge to coordinate the efforts of all relevant stakeholders in six river catchments, to put in place a comprehensive plan to improve water quality. The stakeholders include farmers, Teagasc, private agricultural consultants, industry representatives, the Local Authority Waters Programme (LAWPRO), local authorities, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (DHLGH), and community groups. The team of six Teagasc catchment co-ordinators, and their catchments, are Fiona Doolan in the Boyne catchment; Philip Murphy, Blackwater; Claire Mooney, Suir; Neilus Nunan, Slaney; Oisín Coakley, Lee and Bandon; and Ciaran Sheelan, Nore and Barrow. Noel Meehan, Head of the Teagasc Water Quality Knowledge Transfer Department, said: 'I look forward to working with the six catchment co-ordinators in what is a very important role under the Teagasc Better Farming for Water Campaign. "All stakeholders will be required to play their part in a collective effort of planning and actions. Key to realising improvements is the careful targeting of the right measure in the right place, alongside high levels of implementation at farm level". "We have a great opportunity to use the Better Farming for Water campaign to support farmers in the implementation of water protection measures and to have a period of sustained water quality improvement.' The Teagasc Better Farming for Water campaign focuses on eight actions for change. They are: Reducing the purchased nitrogen and phosphorus surplus per hectare. Ensuring soil fertility is optimal for lime, phosphorus and potassium. Ensuring application of fertiliser and organic manure at appropriate times and conditions. Having sufficient slurry and soiled water storage capacity. Managing and minimising nutrient loss from farmyards and roadways. Fencing off watercourses to prevent bovine access. Promoting targeted use of mitigation actions such as riparian margins, buffer strips and sediment traps to mitigate nutrient and sediment loss to water. Maintaining over-winter green cover, to reduce nutrient leaching from tillage soils. In Munster, there is added emphasis on water quality in the Blackwater catchment, following the launch of the River Blackwater Catchment Programme, led by Dairygold Co-Op. This three-year programme will see the dairy processor partner with Teagasc, LAWPRO, Dairy Industry Ireland, Meat Industry Ireland, Irish Grain Growers, ABP, Dawn Meats, Kepak Group, Kerry Co-op, North Cork Creameries, Tirlán, and others, on a series of combined projects, actions and activities to engage farmers and processors and implement best farm practices to improve water quality. There is also a strong agriculture sector involvement in protecting and enhancing water quality across the River Slaney catchment. Launched about one year ago, the River Slaney Project includes Tirlán, Teagasc, LAWPRO, and accounting and advisory specialists, ifac, providing practical advice and support for water quality. More than 250 Tirlán suppliers have submitted over €1.5m in applications to the €60m Government and European Commission Farming for Water EIP fund for water enhancement. Local authorities across the Slaney catchment, along with Irish Water, and the Kepak, Dawn, and ABP food companies are supporting the project. Tirlán CEO Seán Molloy said: 'We are focused on ensuring that Tirlán and its farmers, alongside agri-food organisations across the country, deliver the best possible case for Ireland's retention of the Nitrates Derogation. 'The months ahead are a crucial period for Ireland to maintain momentum. Our ask is that all farm families continue their good work and engage with us and our partners, with our dedicated teams and ASSAP advisors. "Funding is readily available under the Farming for Water EIP for focused, results-driven actions to protect water, and our teams are available to support suppliers to avail of these.' Read More Slaney water project marks a year of progress
Agriland
23-04-2025
- General
- Agriland
Catchment coordinators appointed to farming for water project
As part of the 'Better Farming for Water' campaign, Teagasc has appointed six catchment coordinators to lead a multi-actor approach to improve water quality in eight of Ireland's most important rivers. The catchment coordinators will work in each of the selected catchments to put in place a comprehensive plan to improve water quality. Stakeholders include farmers, Teagasc, private agricultural consultants, industry representatives, the Local Authority Waters Programme (LAWPRO), and community groups. Local authorities are also involved, along with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (DHLGH) The six Teagasc appointments and catchments include the following: Fiona Doolan – Boyne; Philip Murphy – Blackwater; Claire Mooney – Suir; Neilus Nunan – Slaney; Oisín Coakley – Lee and Bandon; Ciaran Sheelan – Nore and Barrow. The Better Farming for Water campaign includes eight actions, which involve better nutrient, farmyard and land management, and provides a 'structured' and 'relatable' approach for farmers to effectively engage with improving water quality. The eight actions of the campaign aim to: Reduce purchased nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) surplus per hectare; Ensure soil fertility is optimal for lime, P and potassium (K); Ensure application of fertiliser and organic manure at appropriate times and conditions; Have sufficient slurry and soiled water storage capacity; Manage and minimise nutrient loss from farmyards and roadways; Fence off watercourses to prevent bovine access; Promote targeted use of mitigation actions such as riparian margins, buffer strips and sediment traps to mitigate nutrient and sediment loss to water; Maintain over-winter green cover to reduce nutrient leaching from tillage soils. Head of the Teagasc water quality knowledge transfer department, Noel Meehan said: To succeed in improving water quality in the eight selected catchments, all stakeholders will be required to play their part in a collective effort of planning and actions. 'Key to realising improvements is the careful targeting of the right measure in the right place alongside high levels of implementation at farm level. 'We have a great opportunity to use the Better Farming for Water campaign to support farmers in the implementation of water protection measures and to have a period of sustained water quality improvement.' There is variation in the objectives set out for each catchment, but the overall goal is to improve nutrient status.
Yahoo
28-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
NJ files lawsuit seeking to stymie Hochul's NYC driving tax after asking Trump for help
New Jersey Gov. Philip Murphy announced the Garden State updated its lawsuit against the federal government over the Biden-era approval of New York's "congestion pricing" that the Democrat claims is burdening working-class residents. The news comes days after Murphy wrote a letter to President Donald Trump seeking assistance and "common ground" on an issue the Republican also railed against. Approved in the waning days of the Biden administration, a $9 fee is charged for vehicles traversing below Central Park, or 60th Street, by the state-owned MTA. Nj Residents Hit With Doubled Bills As Lawmakers Fume At Murphy's 'Energy Disaster Plan', Demand Hearings Murphy said the Federal Highway Administration [FHWA] wrongly "fast-tracked" approval of the tolling plan that New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and MTA Chairman Janno Lieber said would reduce gridlock, improve the environment and erase red ink on the New York City transit ledger. "The decision by the federal government and the MTA to fast-track a proposal that solely benefits New York's transportation system at the expense of hardworking New Jerseyites must be reevaluated and rescinded," Murphy said in a statement, adding the "scheme" is causing "financial strain" on his constituents. Read On The Fox News App New Jersey officials said the tolls are affecting commuters both financially and geographically. While drivers entering Manhattan via the Holland and Lincoln tunnels receive a small "rebate" on the driving tax, those who cut through Staten Island or cross the George Washington Bridge (GWB) receive no benefit. In its amended complaint, New Jersey alleged the FHWA appeared to miss the effects that added traffic at the world's busiest bridge would have on urban Bergen County communities already facing unfavorable air quality. "Fort Lee has pre-existing pollution and chronic disease burdens at the 90th percentile. Under the congestion pricing scheme, Fort Lee is one of the communities with the 'highest propensity for truck diversion if the proposed action is implemented,'" the lawsuit said, describing the city on the Jersey side of the GWB. Murphy said the feds cannot "continue to turn a blind eye to the significant environmental impacts that congestion pricing will have on New Jersey, favoring New York at the expense of its neighbors." As Hochul and Lieber continue full steam ahead with the tax, suburban drivers have expressed outrage, including those from Long Island, who, because of the placement of toll gantries, cannot leave Manhattan without paying even if they do not intend to drive into the business district. Nj Gov Says He'll 'Fight To The Death' Against Trump Actions Contrary To 'Values' The tax is compounded by the $17 charged by the Port Authority to leave New Jersey eastward across water. Last week, Murphy demanded that the bi-state agency's chairman — Chris Christie appointee Kevin O'Toole — provide monthly data on revenue from changes in driving patterns for those trying to avoid New York's new fees. "The statistical information we are requesting will help us advocate for our commuters and the broader region as we fight this unfair policy," Murphy said. While Murphy previously pledged to "fight to the death" against White House attacks on New Jersey "values" and communities, he also said he would work with the administration when finding common ground. In a letter to Trump, Murphy noted the president pledged to "terminate congestion pricing in [his] first week in office" as a "massive business-killer" and had knocked Hochul for devising the "worst plan in the history of womankind." "I am open to congestion pricing in concept, but New York's scheme has never been well-designed or adequately studied," Murphy wrote, asking Trump for assistance and noting Hochul's "indefinite pause" on the program only lasted until it was clear former Vice President Kamala Harris would not win the election last November. N.J. Assembly Transportation Committee member Christopher DePhillips offered bipartisan support for Murphy's position, telling Fox News Digital that while he backs the governor's goal of ending the "scheme," it will take Trump to "kill it." "I would also like [Murphy] to apply the same effort he puts forth to stop the congestion pricing to help the mass transit riders at home. Drivers shouldn't have to pay more to cross into Manhattan, and [NJ Transit riders] shouldn't have to pay 15% higher fares," said DePhillips, R-Wyckoff. Hochul recently said she has tried to work with New Jersey to avoid ongoing litigation. She said Albany offered a "generous" nine-figure settlement that Trenton rejected. "We've made multiple offers to settle this lawsuit. I wish I could describe them to you because you would say they're generous. I'm not at liberty to do that," she told New York Streetsblog. Members of Congress from Big Apple suburbs called for Lieber's ouster after he held a ceremony to unveil tolling signs on Broadway. "Imagine being such an a--hole as to celebrate screwing New Yorkers out of their hard-earned money just for the privilege to drive to work," Rep. Michael Lawler, R-Nyack, said. MTA executive John McCarthy said in response that Lieber has overseen better service and on-time performance and that "out-of-touch politicians" are simply "bloviating." The FHWA did not immediately respond to a request for article source: NJ files lawsuit seeking to stymie Hochul's NYC driving tax after asking Trump for help
